The Murder God
by Alan Beck
Summary: Story of one guy getting back to what he was good at. Set in AU


The Murder God

"Checkmate Sir" said Chief Baker. Doctor Landry conceded the point and replied "I suppose your right. Tell the rest of them to come in. Doctor Landry finished up with the last of the men's medical paperwork as his assistant Chief Petty Officer Jim Baker gave the men the last of their vaccination shots. After a nine year rotation on Brokkr, the entire compliment was getting ready to depart as the transport vessels were scheduled to arrive once the last of the warp storm subsided. They were men of the Commonwealth and they had all volunteered to spend the past near decade on Brokkr. Since humanity had taken to the stars they had splintered into dozens of different factions. The Commonwealth was among the largest of these galactic nations spanning nearly a thousand worlds with a population in the trillions. And it depended on men stationed on a few dozen remote posts such as Brokkr to keep it running.

Brokkr was a mining colony that was cut off from the rest of the Commonwealth for intervals that averaged nine years. Its solar system was surrounded by massive galactic storms that were impassable except for certain windows when the storms died down. In the history of the colony the storms had lasted as little as five and for one unfortunate group twenty two years on one occasion. While communication was less of an issue the storms even made communication with the outside universe difficult and the personnel would often go over a year blocked from contact with the rest of the Commonwealth. The planet had been found by pure luck by a small merchant ship that had made a crash landing nearly a century back. It was the only planet with a breathable atmosphere in the system. They had managed to contact the Navy for rescue but had needed to wait for 9 years until the warp storm subsided. During their stay on Brokkr they had conducted a massive survey of the planet hoping to discover any possible mineral reserves.

Brokkr was an inhospitable world with one a fifth the volume and one third the mass of Earth. It orbited a fairly young star and was the second planet of seven orbiting its sun. The planet atmosphere was just in range of supporting human life. The surface is a dry, barren wasteland marked by active volcanoes and impact craters containing little surface water. The entire surface was often scoured by sand storms. The surface was mostly ferrous metals, covered by a fine layer of basalt dust that has the consistency of talcum powder. Volcanoes were able to erupt for millions of years unabated. A single hotspot could dump molten rock on the surface for millennia because Brokkr lacks plate tectonics to any real degree. The lack of tectonics means that ruptures in the surface stayed open until there was no more pressure to force magma to the surface. This created massive mountains and valleys a dozen times the size of anything found on Earth. The rest of the surface is dotted with impact craters. Due to the thin atmosphere the surface was constantly beset by meteorites. Most strangle nearly the entire planet was filled with connecting cavern systems that lead to subterranean lairs miles below the surface filled with massive stalagmites made of metals and turbulent rivers and lakes. The Navy had recently installed automated terraforming machines and the machines strained to deal with Brokkr's harsh climes. Yet the planet supported life.

Albeit life in its most basic forms. Various bacteria and paramecium could be found in the soil. Scant plant life could be found dotting the planet taking the form of various lichen, algae and mosses. Some scientists had theorized the vast underground systems contained more advanced forms of life but no one had gone to the bother of checking. Brokkr had made those merchants rich and was worth sending out Navy men for one reason. It had a very large deposit of ganthral.

Ganthral had been for centuries a purely artificial element that was used to fuel the massive engine of the star ships of the Commonwealth. When it was discovered that it existed in nature it had made FTL space travel much more cost efficient since creating ganthral in a lab was extremely costly. Still there were only a couple hundred locations in all of human space and only a few dozen in Commonwealth space to mine it. While some were owned by private firms, the large majority were owned and run by the Commonwealth. The ganthral mined on Brokkr was accountable for three percent of the annual consumption in the Commonwealth.

Landry had been in the service of the Navy for close to five decades with modern medicine keeping him as healthy as a twenty one year old. He was a tall, gaunt man who, by choice, appeared in his early 60s. Eleven years ago he'd volunteered for the Brokkr mission. Unlike most of the crew his motivation had not been wealth or career advancement. At the time he'd lost his wife to a car accident. Caught in the midst of depression he'd needed to seclude himself. So he went with his eight years old daughter, Karen, to Brokkr. His loyal aide, Chief Baker followed suit and joined him. He'd served as the Chief Medical Officer during his stay on Landry.

Baker was a short, quiet man of Irish stock approaching his middle years. His brown hair was streaked with grey as he could not be bothered with anything other than basic longevity treatments. He followed Landry in the view that it was unbecoming for 100 year old men to walk around with the visage of teens. He was mostly ignored by the rest of the crew. Not out of rudeness but because Baker in many ways was viewed as simply an extension of the Doctor. He was a soft spoken efficient man that shadowed Landry wherever he went. Rarely speaking, unless required to for his profession the man was in many ways the perfect aide. He had served with Landry during his entire career in the fleet which had spanned over 20 years.

The HMS Borsht was a sleek stealth craft. Modern vessels were almost completely reliant on sensors to detect other ships. The Borsht could travel close to most ships without detection. The Borsht was part of the People's Confederation of Worlds vessel. The PCW were a group of world's that espoused communism and secular humanism as their creed. They were constantly at odds with the Commonwealth. The Borsht had been assigned to capture the Commonwealth's shipment of ganthral. The problem was they needed to capture the mining ship that had been set to meet the crew of the Brokkr. The mining facility had automated defenses that could hold off a ship for at least as long as the warp storm were to remain calm. They'd need to take the mining vessel and take the facility and its personnel by surprise.

The General saluted the eighty eight men who prepared to deploy. They were the elite troops of the motherland and they were about to engage in the most hazardous military maneuver even elite Special Forces ever engaged in. The ship would momentarily fly parallel to the Commonwealth mining ship and the men would try to cross void between the two vessels only in space suits without any means of propulsion other than small burst of air from their suits. If they did not land on the vessel they would be left into the void of space for dead. One on the surface of the ship they would have to open up the vessels hatches, board and takeover the ship. The ship appeared from behind a comet, surprising the mining vessel. As a group the commandos were released from the loading bay. They drifted through the dead of space. Groups of men interlocked arms and dispersed small burst of air from their suits to guide them to the ship. The men began to land on the hull in small groups. Two groups of men drifted past the ship. As the men drifted off into the void of space their comrades saluted them. In all 73 arrived safely on the mining ship. With skilled precision they broke into groups and opened up various hatches. Each one of the men had memorized the layout of the ship. They entered the interior of the ship and within a matter of minutes either captured or killed the crew of the vessel. They radioed the Borsht. Other commandos were ready to deploy onto the mining vessel. In less than an hour a little over 600 commandos and technicians had docked and loaded on to the mining vessel. Once they completed their mission the Borsht would meet with them in PRK space in 30 days' time.

Admiral Tai received word that the HMS Kittyhawk has hailed them on time and was asking for permission to land. With the ganthral readied for departure inside the landing bay and the men ready to depart he was satisfied. After three days of orientation for the new compliment, he'd be headed for retirement and his promised post as a planetary governor. He checked his dress uniform and marched his staff out to the ship as it landed to greet Admiral Winslow, who would be replacing him as planned. The ships bay doors opened and out stormed the PCW commandos. Admiral Tai and the other officers were cut down in a barrage of laser fire. The commandos moved with quick precision going to preplanned kill points. In a matter of minutes the base had been effectively captured. The soldiers stormed through the remaining build killing whoever they saw.

Landry was helping his daughter pack. Karen was a pretty blonde haired girl who was unusually tall due to having grown up on the low gravity world of Borkkr. She was headed off to university once they left the planet. Landry heard the commotion over the intercom. Landry pulled out his service revolver and prepared to use it anger for the first time in decades. He hadn't heard who was invading simply that they were killing everyone they saw. Baker had been preparing the medical room for the new doctor when he saw a handful of the soldiers who thankfully had been busy killing several of the engineering staff. He ran to the quarters Landry shared with his daughter. As rushed in and was lucky not to be shot by Landry. Landry asked

What are they? Aliens?

No Sir, worse communists. Baker replied

Landry said "We've got to get to the escape shuttle. The Admiral has one adjacent to his quarters. The other ones are likely going to be overrun by soldiers". They ran towards the Admiral's quarters. They ran into a soldier and Landry pulled out his pistol. He fired with skill. He shot the soldier twice in the head. Three others were right behind him. Landry fired first shooting one through the chest. The other two fired at Landry hitting him in the chest and leg. Landry fired off his remaining rounds striking both soldiers through the eye. Landry fell over and Bobby reached to his side.

Landry gasp labored breaths as Jim tried treating the wounds. "Jim it's no use I'm a done for. We had a good run you and me. Get my daughter off world.

Jim replied "Sir, what can I do I am just a glorified nurse. I'm a military man and all but I'm not a grunt and besides I have no weapons. You know that I've been your aide since I enlisted. Its best we surrender now and get you treated. We'll be rescued by High Command in due time."

Landry looked at his daughter and knew what he had to protect her even if it meant setting the Devil back into this world. Landry wheezed as he tried to reply. Jim you are a weapon and those Communist bastards aren't going to take prisoners. This is an off the books black ops mission for the ore. They won't be taking any POWs. Its time you remember. I've been holding on to something for a long now. I got this at the medical conference where we met with those Starfish shaped aliens. They told me about a religious rite they went through which involved going through a period of amnesia. This pill is some sort of nanotechnology that reconnects their mind after the rite is over. When they told me it would work on humans I couldn't help but ask for a dose. I've been holding on to it ever since. Jim took the pill and the nanites inside it began to reconnect long wiped memories and the Murder God was back. Landry asked "Do you remember now?"

Decades beforehand, Landry had been an enlisted Corpsman attached to a Marine unit during the Loung Hai jungle wars. Several prominent officers had died or gone missing recently. A rumor was going around that the rebel government had hired a mercenary by the name of the Murder God. Landry dismissed it as gossip. The Murder God was a myth that had been circulating for centuries. He was supposed to be an implacable mercenary that had changed the course of a dozen wars by targeted assassination and guerrilla warfare. Landry thought it was all hogwash himself. It was just the rebels getting better at the killing. An Admiral from Commonwealth Fleet Command came to inspect the troops one day. Landry's squad was back from patrol and they had been assigned to field day the headquarters of the base. Landry was busy moping and headed into the room Admiral was using as his temporary office. He noticed the Senator smoking a pipe behind his desk and saluted. The Admiral told him to go ahead and mop. As he started the Murder God struck. A shot rang out; q dark skinned native had just shot the base general. He was one of the local officials that were allowed access to the headquarters of the base. Officers began dying by the handful. The native moved with dexterity and grace that was almost inhuman. Two dozen men had died in a matter of moment. Then he came after the Admiral. The Admiral's bodyguards had stayed out of the conflict. There only duty was to protect the Admiral. Augmented men with cybernetic enhancements and genetically engineered muscles. Bodyguards for Commonwealth High Command were selected from elite military and before they began their training. They had no equal in the Commonwealth and they still died facing the Murder God. Then the native began to descend on the Admiral's office

It was just him and the Admiral and Landry was a military man at the end of the day. He'd do his duty and defend the Admiral's life. He vomited once as he waited for Bobby to enter the room. Shaking from nerves he saw the Admiral huddled underneath and felt disgust. He was going to die and with a stoic fatalism decided he would die well.

He pulled out his service pistol and placed his feet shoulder length apart, holding the pistol in one hand with the arm outstretched, and place his free his hip in a bull eye's stance. As the Murder God entered the room Landry began to fire. Then the damnedest of thing happened. The Murder God Bobby O'Shea slipped on the wet floor which Landry had not bothered to finish mopping. Landry fired several laser blasts from his pistol that pierced Bobby through the lung and several other vital organs. Bobby fell to the ground and began to convulse. Landry readied himself for another shot and prepared to fire a killing blow. Just as he was ready to fire the Senator shouted "stop son, he's more valuable alive. The man must be a treasure trove of intelligence." Landry kept his pistol pointed at Bobby while the Admiral called for help. The native's face and skin tone had begun to change as he lay there. He was a pale skinned Irish man from all indications. He had apparently murdered the native to don his appearance with some cosmetic technology.

For some reason the Admiral, who had stayed on the base until a new Commander could be found, assigned him to nurse the man he'd come to know as Bobby back to health. The Admiral was under the mistaken belief Landry might be able to restrain him again if need be. Landry spent the next several months tending Bobby wounds. Bobby didn't harbor any ill will towards the man. He'd beat him fair and square. Besides he was his only companion. Bobby was in a completely secure facility and received no visitors at first. He was filled with sedatives whenever a doctor or other medical staff treated him. Landry and Bobby became regular chess partners as the days went by. On his end the Admiral promised Landry whatever he wanted once things had settled down. Landry asked to be enrolled in medical school and given a commission upon completion. After a few months Bobby was well enough to move and was transported off world.

The Admiral was true to his word. Landry received admittance and scholarship to the top medical school in the Commonwealth. Landry wasn't free of entanglement with the Murder God yet though. Bobby was a civilian and was afforded a trial. Besides the Admiral who was busy with Fleet matters he was the only surviving witness of the massacre so he was required to testify. He'd visit with Bobby during the trips and continued their chess games. The first trial was on whether the Fleet could detain him for prolonged interrogation.

They tried every method of interrogation on Bobby. Simple questioning led, to chemical treatments, hypnosis, sleep deprivation, and even torture. All failed. They eventually tried alien technology which scanned the brain as a form of telepathy. Bobby had conditioned himself against all of these methods Years went by and eventually the court system had enough and the interrogators conceded defeat. Bobby knew this was the end for him so he was more than willing to tell his story he simply was not willing to give out his client's names. He knew a mind wipe was coming so this was condition that he be assigned to Landry's care after it was performed. He's been born on New Dublin two and a half century's earlier and had spent his teens as part of the rebel forces that had fought its government which was the far off monarchy off New Albion. After the rebellion had been defeated he became a mercenary and assassin for hire. For century's he'd gone from world to world working for who could hire him. He gave the names and dates of thousands of assassinations. They were all over space both of human and alien. Worst yet was the manner by which he had done them. When he couldn't find his quarry he'd simply find a way to kill the population. He'd wiped out the methane breathers on Atlas 5 with virus bombs. He'd nuked the city of New Athens when he couldn't find his quarry. When it was all told millions had died by his name. The truth detectors and outside research confirmed it all. Bobby had earned the moniker Murder God.

Capital punishment was illegal in the Commonwealth. The harshest punishment was a mind wipe. A person sentenced to a mind wipe had the memory center of his brain wiped clean. After the procedure they had no memory of their previous lives. Typically the person would be given false memories, a new face and reincorporated into society. By the time of the sentence Landry was a doctor. At the trial he was asked to testify one last time so he was sent back to where they were keeping Bobby. After hearing the sentence he asked the judge to give Bobby to him as an aide. A few months later Seaman Jim Baker reported for duty working for Landry. Now decades later the two of them were in a juxtaposition of how they had first met.

Bobby O'Shea replied "Landry you blimey bastard, you bring me back just to die on me. Killing you was my job." Landry gave a quick laugh through the pain. "So that xenos tech actually worked. So tell me the truth, are you going to save my Karen? I'll save her. Bobby replied. Good pass me one of those commie bastards' grenades. Bobby handed him a bandolier of them and propped the rest next to Landry. Landry took out the clip and pin holding the grenade which just left the handle he was griping on to prevent it from exploding. He said goodbye to his daughter and told Bobby "get on out of here. I hear my ancestors making a place for me at their table and I don't want to make them wait". He gave Landry a wry grin, grabbed a soldier's pistol and ran off with Karen. A few minutes later they heard a large explosion and knew Landry was dead.

Landry moved with preternatural speed. Long atrophied reflexes began to come back to use. He shot a solider down without stopping. Two more hit the ground until he made it to the Admiral's quarters. He located the craft and opened it up. He strapped Karen in and began the flight programs. Then he realized he couldn't leave.

He told Karen "I can't go with you sweat heart. If I don't disable the mining ship they will just go after us and that ship moves a whole lot faster than this shuttle. The second you get into space start hailing the Fleet. Don't stop for anything you need to get out of the area before the storms start back up." Karen asked "What are you going to do Jim? How are you going to disable the ship? You're a corpsman and those are PCW commandos."

"Truth be told I have no idea. But before you leave let me tell you a secret. Dad and I used to be pretty good at this sort of stuff." Bobby programed the remaining instructions for the shuttle autopilot, gave Karen a quick hug and waved goodbye. Then he watched the small craft shoot up through the tunnel into the heavens. It was time to get to work.

He was getting soft. Bobby thought to himself. A few decades ago he would have given a damn about some child. That Landry had done this to him. At the end of the day, Landry had been his friend and these men had killed him. Bobby didn't take kindly to that. Besides, he'd always been good at the killing and there were a lot of men to kill 'round these parts.

He jumped up into a ventilation shaft and began to make his way to the mining vessel. He ended up in a supply closest nearby. Using newly awakened knowledge of explosive, he mixed together a variety of solvents into a makeshift bomb. Hoping back into the ventilation shaft he climbed as close as he could get to the ships exhaust. Taking advantage of the low gravity he jumped forty feet to the ground and headed off in a dead sprint. He raced towards the tail of the ship while dripping the explosive liquid. Arriving at the rear exhaust pipe he jumped up and tossed the bomb in. He ran back towards were he came from and grabbed ignited it with a quick spark made by firing his captured laser pistol. The bomb exploded destroying the ships engines. The explosive also backfired as the explosive hit it ruining the pistol. Bobby cursed and ran into a nearby corridor.

As Bobby was running through the tunnels he saw a young Oriental boy about seven years of age. He recognized him. His name was Kadowaki Nakamura. His parents were engineers and likely already gunned down by the soldiers. Children were rare on the base as most opted to not raise children in such an environment. Bobby wasn't sure what to do. Leaving him would be better for him and might even be better for the boy. The soldiers might not kill a child and Bobby was running to the inhospitable outside world of Borkkr. He wasn't sure whether he'd survive less a child. The sound of soldier's boots forced his hand. He took out a needle filled a sedative and injected the boy. Grabbing by the waist Bobby ran to one of the motor pools. He ran into one of the trucks intended to visit the terraforming machinery and opened up the garage doors. He sped off as soldiers entered the room.

As Bobby raced off he saw the outside of Borkrr. The sun began to set a bloody oblate sphere that began to sink beneath the dunes. The view through the windshield was uniformly ochre for a time. Racing as fast as he could through the various outcropping and sand, he drove for nearly an hour and a truck still dogged him. As they entered into an area full of crystalline geography the view shifted to a prismatic cascade as the sun set began to bounce and reflected off the vast crystal clusters of needle-like spires that surrounded him He sped through the phantasmagorical landscape and saw a square shaped outcropping of thin, scalloped columns topped with razor sharp points. Realizing he would not outrun the soldier's pursuing him he decided to make his stand there. He parked his truck around a bend and tossed the still asleep boy in the back.

Long fulgurite rubes dotted the ground. Fulgurites formed from lightning striking the ground and melting silica surface and fused with the metal ore in the ground. The planet's constant lightening made them abundant. The fulgurite tubes were ebony and red from the iron and copper that fused together during the process. Bobby grabbed one out of the ground as a makeshift club.

Taking advantage of the low gravity he jumped twenty feet up and hid behind one of the spires.

The six soldiers while clearly competent were unfamiliar with low gravity combat it appeared. While they searched with ordered tactical precision, it did not dawn to them that in the low gravity of Brokkr a man could practically fly and combat was more a three dimensional affair than in familiar environments Bobby gently soared some dozens of feet staying hidden from the soldiers as he leapt from spire to spire the high pitched keening wind muffled the sound of his movements. Finally the soldiers began to widen their search which required them to separate themselves. Bobby dropped down with the fulgurite in hand used it as a makeshift bludgeon by smashing the soldier across the face knocking him unconscious. Unfortunately the fulgurite shattered in the process. As he went to pick up the soldier's rifle one of his comrades saw and went for a shoot. Abandoning the rifle he leapt in the air reaching and scrambling across the spires as the soldier fired. The laser beams bounced off the crystalline spires and instead of being damaged they reflected and refracted the beams creating a blinding kaleidoscope of colors. Distracted for a moment the solider averted his eyes as the bulk of the rays reflected back on him.

Bobby jumped back down and grabbed the soldier and leapt into the air impaling him on the apex of one of the crystal columns like some sort of macabre finial. By the end the spires were a gruesome colonnade joined by an entablature of corpses. He then went and tied up the surviving soldier and collected the soldier's weapons. He realized he was rather hungry. He had no rations and the soldiers had left in a hurry so none were on their person either. The planet had almost no natural food except for some sparse vegetation. Bobby realized the choice was fairly simply. There wasn't anything on this planet to eat and he wasn't starving. Then he had an idea. He propped up the tied up soldier so he could watch. He pulled out his knife and began field dressing the corpse.

He cut a circle around the anus so it's free and removed the genitals. Then beginning close to pelvis, he opened the open the stomach cavity to the ribcage. He used the use the first two fingers of his free hand to help guide your knife being careful to only cut through skin and a thin layer of flesh so he would, miss the entrails. Then he cut through the man's ribs and skin, following the breastbone, on up to the neck. He was careful not to twist the blade while it was between bones. The blade was brittle and he was fearful it would break He continued cutting on up to the base of the skull and severed the windpipe and esophagus at the base of the skull.

Next he cut the diaphragm loose. With the sheet of muscle that separates the stomach area from the chest cavity the man's organs were now exposed. He rolled the corpse on its side, and began to pull the organs out. First he reached up into the pelvis and pinched the bladder it shut while he cut it free with his free hand. A little urine is spilled on the meat. He removed it immediately with water from his canteen. Next he removed the large intestine and stomach discarding both. The other organs he removed and put them aside. He did the same to the other corpses and then he began to butcher the corpses. He cut them into steaks and ribs in various portions and placed the majority into a cooling unit which came as part of the truck. The remainder of the flesh he cooked the pieces into steaks. Then he began to eat. All the while the bound and gagged soldier had to watch. After Bobby was done eating, he stood up and spoke to the soldier.

He looked at the commando. Brave and young he tried to sneer but it just came out a sniffle. He was one of the elite PWC commandos and up until a few hours ago he'd considered himself fearless. But right now he was just trying to figure whether the horror he had just witnessed was his fate as well. He began to interrogate him after less than an hour he broke the soldier. The man gave up the mission, troop number and all the other pertinent intelligence Bobby required. Finally Bobby said "you run on home you hear? You tell your buddies I don't know what they did to piss off God, Odin, Yama or whatever the hell runs the Universe. But I know you've done something to piss him off or else he wouldn't have stranded you boys on the same world as me. Tell your friends I'll be coming for all of you. He untied the soldier and tossed him a radio. The soldier ran off. He wasn't too far from the base. He'd be picked up and debriefed soon and the story he'd have to tell. Bobby wanted to induce terror in the soldiers and sending a messenger was the best option. He tied the truck the soldiers had come in to his and drove off with it in tow.

The boy was beginning to wake and complained of hunger. Bobby tossed the boy a steak and he began to eat. Bobby knew if he wasn't already damned he was now.

They continued to drive until it grew completely dark and Bobby parked the car in a canyon he found. With night descending over the land it began to grow exceptionally cold. Even inside the truck with the heaters at maximum capacity it was still rather cold. He wrapped the boy up as best he could and administered another sedative to let the boy sleep through the night. Hoarfrost dotted the exposed ground. The thermometer said the outside temperature was negative sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit. Bobby stood watch through the night afraid that the commandos might look for them even during the night.

The next morning the first order of business was to find a shelter. It was the end of summer on Borkrr. Soon even inside the truck they'd likely not survive a night on the surface of the planet. Bobby drove around for a good deal of the day. He inspected several caves for suitability as a shelter until he found a cave entrance inside of a deep canyon. The cave had a small entrance whose tunnel veered up initially before a steep decline. About 100 meters in the tunnel opened up into a large chamber. Below that were several very small passageways that appeared to lead further down. Bobby determined this would be good enough to survive the elements.

First he tore down the truck the soldiers had been driving. He used the fabric and cushion to create a sleeping area. Then he removed the onboard computer and power supply. Commonwealth vehicles especially those sent to worlds like Borkrr were designed to last. The power supply would last for centuries. He hooked up the lights from the truck and brought in the refrigeration unit which he'd placed the corpses in. Finally they stripped the rest of the truck into spare parts. Some he placed in the other truck and others in the cave. After that he did his best to camouflage the remaining truck. He closed off the passageway with rocks as best he could and began to cut dinner. That night the boy and him slept relatively sound huddled in their new abode underneath the earth.

General Zilberman looked at the report. The ship's engine was beyond saving, the morale among the men was not good. They were likely stuck here. The storms would be surrounding the system in a matter of days and there were no PCW ships nearby. Besides that they had made a headcount of the corpses of the bases personnel and all but three were accounted for. He knew a shuttle had escaped. That accounted for the women and child. That left Chief Baker according to personnel records. He'd heard the Specialist's statement about the battle. He wasn't sure what to make of it other than the corpsman must have got lucky. Unfortunately the Specialist had talked to his platoon about the incident and the story of a cannibal waiting in the desert was becoming well known. The General wasn't really that concerned though. His men had fought in bloody campaigns all across the galaxy. One man was not going to deter them. He realized their best option would be to rebuild the engines. The base did not have many of the raw materials needed to build one or the facilities. Zilberman pulled up a geological survey of the planet. However, the planet did have the materials and they could build the facilities. He would need to send out teams to harvest ore across the continent. It would be a long process and most of the men were commandos not engineers or miners. However, at the end of the day it was their only real chance of getting off the planet. The next time the storms abated they'd be ready to make their escape. Over the next few weeks, the General determined what they needed and began to send out parties to various sites. And the Murder God was waiting for them.

Bobby spied on the mining facility and noticed convoys departing from the base. He tailed them in his truck for an hour and watched as they stopped at an unremarkable hill. They removed automated mining equipment from their vehicles and began to install it. Bobby had an idea of what they were up to. He looks at the onboard computer and accessed the geological reports regarding these coordinate. As he suspected the site had deposits of an ore used in starship engine construction. Other than the lone deposit of ganthral the other ores were not worth the effort of mining due to Borkrr's remoteness. The other convoys were likely doing the same thing at other sites. He pulled out his rifle and began to sigh in on one of the soldiers. Then he changed his mind. He'd be running out of food soon. He decided to wait. Eventually, most of the men left and only a small group were there to make sure the machinery operated properly. Bobby pulled out a garrote and crept up on foot to the men and machinery. He waited until one of the soldiers walked off to relieve himself. He moved quietly up to the squatting solider and strangled him with the garrote. He grabbed the body and carried it off. Over the next few days several more men suffered similar fates around the various other new mines.

When the soldier's heard of the disappearances the news about the incident with the specialist rumbled through the battalion. The revelation that a single man was responsible for the deaths rattled even the elite PCW commandos. Worse yet knowing that their comrades were being eaten by a cannibal lowered the morale of even men who had spent their lives deal death on countless worlds. A clear sense of dread permeated the forces that went out on the various missions. Irreligious men were consulting the chaplain for the first time in their careers. Despite the best efforts of the men the casualties kept mounting. Every fourth or fifth mission a team would comeback missing at least one man. Yet there was nothing to be done. If the ship was to be ready by the time the warp storms cleared it required men to travel across the continent harvesting the necessary raw ore for the ship.

After the mining equipment was fully installed the soldiers still had to go to the various sites and collect the ore and in the desert Bobby waited for them. Within a year 47 men had been lost. Some lost to explosions and sniper fire. Others crept upon and gutted in their sleep. Over half the bodies had been drug off by the devil Chief Baker, although the men had taken to calling him Murder God.

Bobby was climbing the spire shaped hills formed out of some ferrous metal that formed over the wind swept veils of sand that drifted over the plains. The sun had risen over the western horizon and soon the hills would be impossible to remain upon. If he did the soles of his boots would begin to melt and if he was foolish enough to touch the rock with exposed flesh he's be liable to leave a lawyer of skin. He'd already learned that mistake months back and had suffered for days with infection and had spent much of his dwindling supply of antibiotics.

He scrambled down into a crevasse. A small trickle of water was being collected into a jug he had placed there some days back. He gathered up the 10 gallon jug and began to scrap lichen he found along the surrounding rock. The lichen was the only edible plant he'd found on the planet. Besides vegetables in the occasional MRE he'd find off dead soldiers it was his only vegetable supply. He scratched a few scraps off and put it into his bag. He wondered where he would find another patch as this one was quickly running out.

Malnutrition had become a serious concern for him. Even with ample supplies of meat from the corpses of the slain soldier he faced it. The human body simply needed some vegetables in their diet. He'd felt stiffing in his joints and other subtle indications that he was suffering from it. Harvesting the lichen was key to his survival and ongoing war.

He took the jug out and carefully replaced it with another one. In a few days' time he'd return to collect it. He foolishly almost took a sip out of habit. The acidic water would likely kill him right now. He'd need to take it back to base to distill it before he could hope to quench his thirst. He hauled the jug up and noticed the sound of the ever present dry wind was changing. Bobby's senses had become finely attuned to the planet. He noticed subtle differences in light and the changed in air and smell that foretold the coming of storms. The keening wind was telling him that he needed to get back underground quickly because a sandstorm was coming. The sand came at speeds fast enough to strip a man to bone in a matter of minutes. He mused to himself that this area would actually be pretty nice in a couple centuries. The various automated terraforming devices spread across the planet were still functional. They were slowly releasing spores that would make the atmosphere retain more water and turn the planet into a fairly lush world in the coming centuries.

He scurried down the hill and made it into the truck as he raced off. As he raced towards his home cave he realized he would not make it time. While the sturdy truck would protect him from injury it would be ruined if left in the open in a sand storm. He looked for a place to pass the storm. He saw a small ravine which he pulled into. The drifting sand winding through the vast sweeps of khaki valleys ridges cuestas, and escarpments left him blinded inside the truck. Even protected by the ravine, the sand pelted at the truck. The sand began to abet after several hours and he returned to the cave. This had become a regular day for him over the past year.

The boy was beginning to earn his keep. Bobby had begun with teaching the lad how to sharpen knives. Kadowaki had taken to the task with zeal. Next he'd taught the boy to disassemble and clean his rifles. He typically alternated between rifles day to day. So while he was away, the boy would clean the sand and grime away from his weapons. As time went by the boy inevitably discovered what their meals comprised of. Being a child, he had no frame of reference to think it out of the ordinary. Bobby taught the boy how to prepare the corpses he brought in. The boy became responsible to butchering the bodies and distilling the water that came in. Bobby spent some time teaching Kadowaki how to use a knife and how to shoot a rifle. He also made sure the boy received as much of a formal education as he could although he let the computer handle most of it. The computer had multiple education programs and despite the boys responsibilities he still had most of the day to himself. He'd spend hours on the computer learning what most children learned in a class room. By the time he was ten Bobby took him along to collect water and lichen. He learned to detect coming storms and the noon day heat. Bobby had also begun to teach him how to play chess. He had carved a set while a particularly bad storm had cut them off from the outside for a week. The boy was beginning to catch on. Eventually, Bobby allowed the boy out of the cave on his own and Kadowoki started collecting water and hunting for lichen in those places within walking distance of the cave.

This freed up Bobby's time immensely. Where he used to only have half the day to hunt, he could spend most of the day scouting for PWC soldiers. Confident that he could leave the boy alone, he would leave for several days at a time.

By the fourth year he noticed a dramatic decrease in the levels of men who departed. The men had finished collecting the ore needed for the engine he realized. Weeks went by and his stock of meat began to diminish. He knew he had to go into the facility. He made his way a few miles away from the base and parked his truck. From there he scrambled over protuberant scones of metallic rock and crouched behind large mound as he surveyed the base. He looked at the grey regolith of the land near the base. Fissured outgrowths of rock concealed the base doors. He knew there were small access points for maintenance in the roof of the facility. He got closer and barely noticed a slight movement in the rocks above a rupes near a ventilation shaft. He froze and surveyed the surrounding. First he saw the movement belonged to a soldier in a sniper's ghille suit. Nearly perfectly blended into the rock was another a couple hundred meters to the soldier right. He'd been lucky to avoid detection and realized the soldier's had been tighter about security than he first realized.

He approached the base from all avenues and found snipers neatly concealed around the base. They were all out of range of his standard issue rifle. However, Bobby was well aware he was within range of the high powered sniper rifles. He would not get within half a mile of the base before getting cut down. He returned to his main camp where Kadowaki waited. He had a couple options. The first and most obvious of which was to kill the boy. It would cut the meat that was consumed in half. He considered and discarded the idea for the time being. He grown fond of the boy in the last few years and he was not ready to take that action. The next would be to try and reach one of the terraforming platforms. Contained within them were edible grains that were planned to be thrown into the atmosphere in a hundred years' time once the planet was capable of supporting such life. The problem was the nearest was halfway across the continent. Water would be an issue. Assuming they found the machines, Bobby did not know whether he could break in without causing an explosion that would destroy the food. Even then it was a temporary solution. He imagined at best that might yield half a year's food for the two.

He told Kadawok the problem and it was the boy that came up with the answer. "Sir, why not attack from the caves underneath the base?" He replied "What do you mean boy? The mining tunnels only go down. There is no access from the surface." The boy replied "Sir, look here". Kadowoki took the laptop and pulled up a display of the planet. Bobby realized that at some point he must have known this planet was covered subterranean tunnels. A geology report from when the planet was first surveyed indicated that underneath the base were corridors of cavern that could lead to the base. He'd never bothered to study them. The boy who spent most of the day alone clearly had.

It took Bobby nearly a month of exploration before he found a suitable entryway into the base. He crossed through into the caverns. Inside were stalagmite and stalactite cones of all degrees of irregularity and truncation. Unlike the typically smooth structures above ground which had been battered by countless aeons of sandstorms down here sharp terraces of every disproportion stuck out ready to cut the unwary.

As he descended further he could smell ammonia vents spewing noxious fumes into the air. . He traversed jagged pillars of odd bulbous enlargements. He calculated he had two miles further to go. He scrambled through a narrow appurtenant tunnel and caught unaware fell some dozens of feet. The composition of the cavern began to take a divergence. He walked into a massive gothic cathedral of filled with bright hued crystals. The walls were uniform paraffin. A great candelabrum composed of a seven sided arrangement formed a mad grotesqueness which hung above. Light came out of cracks in the floor from some unknown source. Created by untold epochs of chemical process to which Bobby could only imagine, the massive room placed him in awe. In the hundreds of worlds he'd visited in couple centuries he'd been a mercenary he'd never seen anything more profound. Eventually he continued the remaining distance through a great many shafts.

He heard the clattering of machinery and knew he was in the ganthral mines below the base. Giant machines drilled, broke and sorted earth. Massive conveyor belts took loads of ore to be processed. There were no cameras or security measures because there had never been need of any. Bobby began to recognize some of the mines. On a couple occasions, technician working on the mining equipment had been injured and he'd been sent to tend to them. Knowing that he was close, Bobby slowed down his pace as he ascended into the base proper.

He came across an equipment locker. He raided a variety of supplies including medicine and tools. Placing them into his backpack he continued. The first man he saw was one of the PCW technicians. He snuck up from behind and wrapped his right arm around the technician's neck. Grabbing his other arm with his right hand, he began putting pressure on the man's carotid arteries. This cut off the flow of oxygenated blood to his brain. Within second the man was unconscious and within minutes he was dead. Bobby hoisted the man's corpse over his shoulder and headed back down into the caverns.

Bobby made his way through the caverns and returned to his cave pleased.

The first man lost would be deemed an accident. However, after more began to disappear the soldier's would know that he had infiltrated the base. The rations and the man he killed would give him and the boy close to a month of food.

Kadowaki asked to go along with him for the next missions. He made a good argument. Despite being 12, due to the low gravity Kadowaki would have no problems carrying a full grown man. They slipped into the caverns and took the same path as before. They crept into the lower labyrinth of the mining facility. With the boy in tow, Bobby raided the supply closets. As Bobby had suspected, the first raid had not alerted the soldiers as there were no new security measures in place. He knew that subconsciously they wanted to believe the man had disappeared due to an accident so they could go to bed feeling safe. Kadowoki moved stealthily behind Bobby as they stalked a pair of soldier they saw on passing by. They hid in a side corridor as waited until the soldier walked by. Bobby took out his laser pistol and fired two quick silent blasts from his laser pistol in to the soldiers' backs. The pair both grabbed a corpse and hoisted it over their shoulder and crept back into back into the depths.

One soldier came out from behind surprising Bobby and pulled out his pistol to fire. Kadowaki who was still hiding saw the man and leapt on his back with his knife in hand. He slit the soldier's throat

They took a moment to clean up the area as well as possible.

The two made a litter and carried the three bodies and supplies down throw the caverns.

Kadowaki asked Bobby "Sir, does this make me a hero now?"

Bobby laughed "Hero boy? We're the villains. Foul demons that creep into the halls of men and snatch them away to feast on in our abode beneath the ground. We are the Evil in the Garden of Eden, sent by the Devil to spread devastation and death. I'm surprised you didn't know that.

Kadowaki shut up and they proceeded through the cavern.

Over the next few months they continued to stalk the halls. They found new caverns and mapped out dozens of different approaches into the mining facility.

The pair would collect a soldier, sometimes two, and descend back into the caverns.

The atmosphere among the men was one of palatable horror. Men began to walk around in groups whenever possible. People started disappearing one by one. The General began posting guards in the tunnels. The problem was the sheer amount of caverns the facility was completely surrounded by. The countless pathways were too labyrinthine in their design for them to map.

They could guess at where Bobby would enter but they did not have anywhere near the man power to man each cave even if most of the men were not assigned in one way or another to repairing the ship.

They had considered simply blasting the cavern however there was a significant risk of collapsing the whole facility if they did so. So by the fifth year they had lost 216 of the original complement to a monster that stalked their halls. The soldier's quit referring to Bobby simply as a man. In their discourse he had acquired a supernatural aspect. A cannibal monster that crept through their halls never seen until it was your turn to die. Some of the men despite a being raised in the strict secular humanist regime of the PWC began believing him a manifestation of the Devil. Already one of the men had been put down after going insane. Two had committed suicide. One had left no note while the others read "it is clear we have committed monstrous and unforgivable sins. Why else would God send his vengeance on our wretched band? I would rather die now than have my body and soul fed upon by the monster".

They continually searched for him in the honeycomb of primal masonry underground to no avail. Growing brave the two were able to acquire a handful of potted vegetables and a solar lamp from one of the underground greenhouses which provided the base with food. Bobby knew that the plants had been genetically modified to survive as best as any plants could in the harsh environment. However, he had his reservations. If they did manage to grow the plants they would not need to continue on their eternal quest for lichen.

The two returned to their cave. They went to a lower cave neither ever had any reason to visit. It was where they threw away the refuse of the men they consumed. The two jumped the twenty five feet to the lower cavern and almost immediately were overwhelmed by the stench. On the ground were the remains of hundreds soldiers. Rotting large intestines, bladders, hair, bones and other remains had been collecting in the lower cave for years now. The acrid fumes coming from the lower caves had blocked the foul stench of decay and decomposition. This close there was no denying it. Bobby saw fetid fungi growing on the remains and thought to himself if that grows why these. Bobby was certainly no gardener but he assumed that the remains would serve as a sort of fertilizer for the plants they had come away with. They mixed in the remains with dirt from the surrounding area. Then the pair set up the solar lamp and planted the plants they had taken from the base. After a few weeks' time they saw progress. The plants growing in the rich soil began to sprout tubers, bells and other vegetables. The plants designed to grow food quickly and in poor conditions started to produce in a few months' time. From that point on the macabre garden produced all their vegetable stock. While it did not produce enough to allow them to stop raiding the base, it alleviated the urgency of their visits to a large extent.

In the eighth year of their extended stay the time for departure was soon upon them. The commandos were getting hard to harvest from the base. The remaining 250 commandos were the best of the group. They had learned to stay in groups and be observant. They had booby trapped as much of the caverns as they could with make shift mines and traps. A trip through towards the base now took weeks of careful planning and probing. The pair was lucky to harvest a man once in two months' time. However the garden had expanded and supplemented their diet to a larger extend. They had been able to construct air wells that collected water out of the surrounding moisture which supplied both them and the garden with water.

Bobby knew that both the Commonwealth and the PCW would be sending ships to retrieve the ganthral. With the base under PCW control the Commonwealth troops would be hard-pressed to take it. As the Commonwealth was his only chance off this rock he had to change that. He had set up a communications device which had the range to pick up transmissions from space. He would have liked to have broadcasted as well but he knew the soldiers would pick up the transmission and be able to determine where they were through triangulation.

Kadowaki had grown into a fine youth. Well over 6 feet the low gravity had made him grow tall. He was a lean, tanned lad made hard by a life of violence in the desert of Brokkr. Over the years Bobby had trained him as well as any Special Forces soldier. He was equally proficient with fist, blade and rifle; Bobby had begun to treat him as an apprentice. The cave they lived in had become a tabernacle of trinkets collected from raids and off the soldiers they hunted. From rifles to wedding bands the saved stored everything they found in case they were to need it in their quest to survive. Also he had become a rather proficient chess player. Bobby had missed his daily matches with Landry and was glad to have a replacement. Computers were fine but nothing could replace a human opponent. While he hadn't yet managed to beat Bobby he had managed a draw for the first time last month.

Towards the middle of the eighth year Bobby caught his first transmission. A Commonwealth vessel had radioed the base and asked for terms of surrender. The storms were clearing a little earlier this cycle.

In the orbit above Borrkr, a standoff was taking place. The PWC ship the HMS Borsht and the Commonwealth ship the HMS Eir were both ready to claim the planet. The Commonwealth had picked up Karen a few weeks after the initial attack. Based on what she told them they had a fairly good understanding of what had transpired. The PWC claimed that the soldiers on the planet while citizens of the PWC who were in fact wanted criminals and the Commonwealth had effectively abandoned the planet as they had no citizens on the planet. Both sides had agreed that Chief Baker was dead although based on recent transmissions with the men below the PWC knew better. They guaranteed that they would take the men into custody and prosecute. However, despite being criminals the PWC men below had effectively laid claim to the planet below for the PWC. Both sides knew the discussions were simply pantomime while one side or the other figured out how to get into base without incident.

Bobby and Kadowoki left their cave for what they hoped would be the last time and headed towards the base. The pair skulked into the base and began their last mission. Bobby suspected rightly that the reason the Commonwealth ship had yet to land was because of the bases defenses. The two slipped into the command center of the base through a ventilation shaft. There were four men inside. Bobby cut down two with quick blasts from his rifle. He proceeded to break the third's neck with his hands and Kadowaki slit the last one's throat. Then Bobby engaged the command center's doors which barricaded them in.

Bobby put a knife to the remaining soldier's throat and told him to tell the Borsht to. With full control of the weapons systems he radioed the Commonwealth vessel. He requested the ship fire on the Borsht. After an initial surprise, the ship's Captain agreed. The ship engaged their weapons systems and fired. The Borsht taken by surprise flew towards the base to get cover from the bases defenses. The Borsht ordered the base to fire and Bobby did. 12 surface to air missiles launched from the base. The Borsht caught all of them in the belly and exploded in a grand conflagration. He radioed the Commonwealth vessel and it proceeded to land. Bobby stood at attention as the ship landed while Kadowoki stood in the background. When the men emerged from its maw he gave a stiff salute. He greeted the men and welcome them onboard the base. The General knew that they were beaten and ordered the men to surrender. The men, knowing this was a guaranteed off world trip were by this point more than happy to surrender. Within an hour the base was secured by the Commonwealth forces.

Admiral Hedrick's looked over Chief Petty Officer Baker's file. After briefing them on the event of the past several years Baker had requested a discharge when convenient. As Hedrick's reviewed Baker's file, he still wondered how a Corpsman could have done that much damage to a group of elite PWC commandos. Then he saw the dozens of redacted classified pages and it became obvious to him. Clearly, Baker was some former Special Forces elite that had lost the taste for killing so he'd opted to become a Corpsman. That was until the PWC commandos decided to raise the Devil. Hedrick's could have asked for the original of the classified files but he didn't see the point. The request would take weeks to process and would delay both him and Baker. He signed the discharge paperwork and an approval of adoption form for the Oriental lad that Baker had with him.

Six months later Bobby and Kadowoki were on the rooftop of Balder V, a world half way across the galaxy whose governor had earned the ire of the local triads. Bobby was zeroing in on the Planetary Governor through a riflescope while Kadowoki acted as his spotter. The Murder-God had been set free.


End file.
